External ventricular drainage for posthemorrhagic ventricular dilatation in preterm infants: insights on efficacy and failure

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OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to describe the clinical and neuroradiological characteristics of a cohort of preterm infants who had undergone external ventricular drain insertion as a temporary measure to treat posthemorrhagic ventricular dilatation. In addition, the authors investigated the factors predicting permanent shunt dependency. METHODS The authors retrospectively reviewed the medical records of a cohort of preterm infants who had undergone external ventricular drain insertion at Gaslini Children's Hospital (Genoa, Italy) between March 2012 and February 2018. They also analyzed clinical characteristics and magnetic resonance imaging data, including diffusion-and susceptibility-weighted imaging studies, which were obtained before both catheter insertion and removal. RESULTS Twenty-eight infants were included in the study. The mean gestational age was 28.2 +/- 2.7 weeks, and the mean birth weight was 1209 +/- 476 g. A permanent ventriculoperitoneal shunt was inserted in 15/28 (53.6%) infants because of the failure of external ventricular drainage as a temporary treatment option. Compared with the shunt-free group, the shunt-dependent group had a significantly lower gestational age (29.3 +/- 2.3 vs 27.2 +/- 2.7 weeks, p = 0.035) and tended toward a lower birth weight (p = 0.056). None of the clinical and neuroradiological characteristics significantly differed between the shunt-free and shunt-dependent groups at the time of catheter insertion. As expected, ventricular parameters as well as the intraventricular extension of intracerebral hemorrhage, as assessed using the intraventricular hemorrhage score, were reportedly higher in the shunt-dependent group than in the shunt-free group before catheter removal. CONCLUSIONS External ventricular drainage is a reliable first-line treatment for posthemorrhagic hydrocephalus. However, predicting its efficacy as a unique treatment remains challenging. A lower gestational age is associated with a higher risk of posthemorrhagic hydrocephalus progression, suggesting that the more undeveloped the mechanisms for the clearance of blood degradation products, the greater the risk of requiring permanent cerebrospinal fluid diversion, although sophisticated MRI investigations are currently unable to corroborate this hypothesis. https://thejns.org/doi/abs/10.3171/2021.5.PEDS20928

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